ChatGPT has taken the world by storm this year, and there seem to be limitless applications for AI software. You can build websites with AI-generated code, create writing prompts when you have writer’s block, summarize articles,  ask it for a list of why managed IT services are great for your business and more. With so much AI info out there, you may be looking for a ChatGPT guide. 

We understand your need for concise, helpful advice on AI, so we created a ChatGPT guide so that you can get the most out of the chatbot. After all,  it can be difficult to get the chatbot to give you the result you’re looking for. Whether the content it produces sounds off or the code has some mistakes, ChatGPT serves as a good starting point for information but isn’t the end-all-be-all.

Tip #1: Use Specific and Simple Prompts

Being specific matters when it comes to taking advantage of this AI tool. The chatbot pulls what it needs based on the context you give it. So, if you want the best results, include explicitly what you want it to do with the tone and the length of the content you have in mind.

While ChatGPT can write essays, we don’t advocate doing so without citing that you used ChatGPT to write them. Plagiarism is a serious offense and as good as the AI is, some tools can spot when content is sourced from an AI chatbot.

The good news is that you can leverage the chatbot as something to help with writer’s block.

If you’re looking for a good starting point and you type the prompt “write an essay on why managed IT services are great for small businesses,” ChatGPT will generate an essay of a random length and may or may not provide any sources. 

Instead, you would want to ask the chatbot to “write a 300-word essay on why managed IT services are great for small businesses and include citations,” to narrow down your results. 

Note: ChatGPT will sometimes make up the information for the sake of generating a prompt quickly, so it’s important to double-check all sources it comes up with. In our experience, more often than not, the links for sources ChatGPT provides are broken or simply don’t exist at all. 

Tip #2: Lean Into Conversational Language

ChatGPT is designed to have conversations with you. If you need to fine-tune a response or gain further context, ask it a follow-up question to dive deeper into its thought process.

In the previous essay example, when you asked ChatGPT to provide citations, it might fail to include them in the initial response. So, you should ask it instead to try again but this time use MLA citations in its response — another example of being specific as possible. This time, it should work with no issues and even give you a “works cited” section for the essay.

Tip #3: Request Do-Overs

If you don’t like ChatGPT’s responses, ask it to try again. As mentioned earlier, being specific and refining your prompts can help.

In the same conversation window where you requested ChatGPT to write the essay, try asking it to try again, without any other context. It will regenerate the entire essay but in a slightly different way.

If that response isn’t to your liking, you can experiment with future responses by requesting another do-over, but this time in the style of a college freshman. This prompt will regenerate the content but with a bit less refinement and more adjectives. Whatever you end up doing, you can always request a do-over or open up a new chat window to start fresh.

Tip #4: Inform the Writing Style

If you don’t want to rely on ChatGPT’s unusually verbose writing style, you can teach it how to mimic your own or other writers’ styles. Find something you wrote, copy and paste it into ChatGPT, and then ask Chat to analyze the writing so it can become familiar with the writing style you want it to use.

If you’re looking for writing in a different author’s voice, you can always ask it to do so. Here’s the response provided from the whimsical request to “write a short paragraph on cyber security services in the style of Shakespeare.”

Note: ChatGPT’s knowledge base is current up until 2021, so any article or webpage published after that year is not available to the tool. 

Tip #5: Ask for More Than You Need

It is always much easier to take away from something if needed than to add to it after the deed is done. ChatGPT and the content it produces work in the same manner. 

If you’re looking for a 300-word response, you should ask for 350 words or 400. Then, you can go through and practice Hemmingway’s editing style and take away things as needed to get back down to your real word limit.

For instance, if you want a list of five potential blog topics on IT support for law firms, ask the bot to suggest 10, then narrow your list down to the five you think would be best to write about.

Tip #6: Become a Written Content Editor

Be prepared to edit and fact-check the content that ChatGPT gives you. As mentioned earlier, it can still make mistakes or completely make up information. 

Always proofread for grammatical errors and conciseness and ensure it is saying things you are comfortable with having your name attached to. Even a quick once-over could spark some interest in topics you want ChatGPT to follow up on, and it is best to ask those follow-up questions in the same conversation. Always put yourself in the shoes of your readers: Would they find the content from ChatGPT useful, interesting or entertaining?

Tip #7: Understand ChatGPT’s Limitations

Unlike the inflated hype the software has been getting from mainstream news media outlets, ChatGPT cannot do everything. It doesn’t have the most up-to-date information (the knowledge base ends in 2021) and it doesn’t search the internet for the latest information.

The information that ChatGPT sources can be outdated or outright inaccurate on evolving topics like cyber security or technological advancements. ChatGPT will also unintentionally bring biases into its generated responses as it was trained on information containing those same inherent biases. 

ChatGPT Guide: Final Thoughts

ChatGPT should be treated as a productivity tool that can aid you in completing complicated or time-consuming tasks, but not as something that can replace your work entirely. Review everything you create before publishing, or use it as a writer’s block deterrent.

If you’re looking for more information on the latest technology or have any burning questions related to IT, contact us or book a meeting. We’re ready and willing to help with all your IT needs.